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Nomadic Aesthetics
For years I couldn’t imagine walking into an office building or a bank or department store or any other public space and not seeing an ashtray. Not because I noticed them, but because they were ubiquitous. Standing ashtrays just inside the entry doors, ashtrays on counters next to the bank teller, ashtrays attached to the […]
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Postcard Archive: November 2020
With the new month comes a new postcard. This month’s postcard comes from a moment when I paused in the plains of eastern Colorado to appreciate the moment. Let me know if you want a copy. The sun burst through the clouds for just a moment in defiance of the howling wind and rain, causing […]
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Never Again
Behind some pine trees, in the corner of the park, stands a swing set. The old, heavy-duty kind. All galvanized pipes, chain, and hard rubber that will probably survive armageddon. This swing set happens to be for toddlers, the seats those horribly uncomfortable baskets designed by somebody who can’t recall the abrasions and pain these […]
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Stairs
Wandering through town the other day I walked by a building I’ve passed a hundred times. The most interesting aspect of the building was the astrology and tarot card reader that had a shop there for a couple years. With that gone, I scarcely give the building a second look. For some reason, I paused, […]
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Just arrows
In so many ways life hasn’t yet returned to normal. The trains and rail stations are still empty. So I wonder, why did somebody feel the need to place a new sticker on the ground indicating which way to go? How many commuters pass this spot on any given day?
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Look closely
Linger for a moment to look closely at the shell in the display case. It has been there, the label claims, for more than a century. The curator who first selected it for display along with how many of the other workers who have tended to it over the years are now dead. Yet the […]
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Look up
Carrying around a camera gives me license to look at things most of us walk past without noticing. The camera seems to give me permission to linger, to observe, to look around and behind, to look down and up. One rainy afternoon we took shelter in a portico. There in the shadows I noticed stairs […]
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Look down
I tend to spend the fall looking up at the trees to see the autumn colors. I particularly like the early fall as the leaves form a sort of autumnal spectrum of colors, ranging from deep burgundy in the upper most branches of a tree through flaming reds and oranges, to yellows, and on to […]
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Yellows in November
The arid forests of the Southwest are beautiful in the fall. Against backdrops of blue-gray junipers and piñons the vibrant yellows stand out. Cottonwoods are the iconic fall tree, and for good reason. But look past the cottonwoods and you’ll see explosions of color everywhere. Hikes and walks through these forests present chaotic scenes, often […]
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Falling and Fallen
Autumn is here, bringing with it the drizzle of falling leaves and the carpet of those already fallen. Greens, yellows, reds, and browns, sometimes crowded together, sometimes by themselves. I wonder if they get lonely?